Get It Together
by we-are-not-soldiers
Summary: What if the "Vegas New Years" episode of Ray William Johnson's vlog Breaking LA went differently? What if our darling Meekakitty went along, too? But first, what led to all that...
1. It's Like That

_Hello, all of you who will ever read this... ever._

_This is for TEH COUSIN, who was one of, like, five people who didn't like the ending of the "Vegas Edition" of Breaking LA, Ray William Johnson's vlog. And so, this is a slightly different version. Hope you likies._

_By the way, all chapters in this fic are based off of Outasight's latest mixtape, "Get It Together". Hence the name._

* * *

><p><em>- <strong>It's Like That<strong> -_

_Some might get it and some might not,_  
><em>We don't really care, we just do what we want,<em>  
><em>It's like that, oh. It's like that, oh.<em>  
><em>I don't care.<em>

- "We made it back to Los Angeles just in time to meet up with Harley from Epic Meal Time to have a couple of beers." -

Ray William Johnson, Big Rob, Lance Patrick, and Harley all sat around Ray's dining room table with a ton of beer bottles, both filled and empty, scattered across it. They knew that they couldn't have too many, since this was all being recorded on camera, but then again, Breaking LA wasn't your average vlog...

"I was.. I was thinking about, uh..." Ray tried to find the right words to say. He was about to announce something rather personal to the boys and the audience, and he knew they wouldn't take it 100% seriously. "Y'know, I've been... sort of... dating around for a while, and I was thinking about getting a... a girlfriend."

"What..." was all Lance could say. Ray having a legit girlfriend? Sure, he was the most likely out of all the single guys that he hung out with, but still...

"I know, I know..." Ray said loudly over the boys' chattering.

"_Ugh_!" Rob blurted out, clearly amused by this new information. "What are you, gay?"

Ray faked a smile. "Yes, that makes me completely and utterly homosexual."

"You're a _sellout_!" Lance accused.

"Yeah, I know, I'm selling out, I'm fuckin'..."

"Dude!"

"Wait, before you say anything ridiculous, I'm just letting you guys know that I'm_ thinking_ about it, okay?" Ray quickly interjected. "I'm thinking about it. You know, the decision's only half mine-!"

"It's fuckin' Anna!" Lance yelled.

"It's not Anna, dude," said Rob, and Ray was glad to have someone on his side.

"Yeah, it's not Anna..." Ray trailed off, staring at an object on his coffee table in the living room. It was a black, silicone wristband, and on it, in all white, capital letters, was the word...

"Meekakitty..." Ray muttered, and a flood of memories washed over him of all of the good times that he had back in New York City with his roommate Will and Will's younger cousin... Tessa...

"Does this mean you're gonna stop having sex with us?" asked Lance, breaking the silence, and he and the others cracked up.

"Get the fuck outta here!" Ray laughed. "You guys are stupid..."

"So, you want a tiny Asian girl that when she grabs your dick, it looks huge?" Rob wanted to know, grinning hysterically.

"Ugh, Rob..." Ray smothered his face in his hands, remembering why he thought it was a bad idea to tell them in the first place. "Rob," he said loudly, preventing him from cracking another joke. "Just a girlfriend."

"Hey, it's good," said Lance in an honest tone, standing and holding up his glass to clink it with Ray's beer bottle.

"Thank you."

"One last kiss!" He puckered his lips, and fell back in his seat from laughter. The boys laughed with him, leaving Ray unamused.

"But, for real, to snuggle bunnies," Harley declared, raising his beer bottle.

"To snuggle bunnies!" Rob and Lance loudly agreed.

Ray cracked a smile and laughed, "You guys are terrible," before he clinked beer bottles with them.

* * *

><p><em>So, there you have it. Chaptah 1 of multiple. The chapters will be pretty short (haha like RAY) but y'know. That just means that it'll be updated more. If you like it, that is. If you don't, I'll probably still be uploading chapters.<em>

_Sooooo R&R and all of the other R's that are on this site._


	2. Change the World

_Chapter 2. This is the shortest chapter out of all of them... my apologies. ENJOY IT._

* * *

><p><em>- <strong>Change the World<strong> -_

_I feel like I woke this morning,_  
><em>And I could change the world,<em>  
><em>I could change the world,<em>  
><em>But it's up to you!<em>

Even after a week since having that "girlfriend conversation" with Rob, Lance, and Harley, Ray couldn't stop thinking about Tessa. He watched a couple of her latest vlogs and quickly remembered that she was going on the Dial-Up Tour with Mitchell Davis, Kyle Sibert, Nanalew, and a couple other guys whose names he didn't really care about. All that mattered to him was that, on New Year's Eve, he would prove to himself, Rob, Lance, and most of all Tessa..._ that she should be his girlfriend._

_But how?_ Whenever he repeated that sentence in his head, he was merely convincing himself that he had gone crazy and was just madly looking for love.

After much trial and error of figuring out Tessa's current location by stalking her social networking sites, he decided to leave a message in her YouTube inbox about whether or not she would be in California any time soon. After he clicked send, he decided to leave his investigating at that.

"Ray, it's time for your interview at Playboy!" Rob yelled from the kitchen.

"Okay, I'm comin'!" Ray replied quickly. He grabbed his Ray-Bans and jogged into the kitchen where Rob, Lance, and Sami (one of the producers) were waiting for him. They then headed out the door.

- _"So, recently I had an interview over at Playboy Radio, and I thought it would be cool if we brought along the cameras to have a little behind the scenes look at that."_ -

"We're driving over to Playboy Radio - yeah, apparently, Playboy Magazine has a radio station, as well - and they had asked to interview me," Ray told the camera as Rob drove them over to the radio station. "My only question is... how does one masturbate to Playboy on the radio?"

* * *

><p>"It felt really cool," Ray said to the audience after the interview was over. "I was in there for an hour, and it didn't feel like an hour at all." He then paused and stole a peek at the waiting room, where Rob, Lance, and poor Sami were surrounded by girls. "Oh, Lord," he whispered, stifling a laugh. "I leave them alone for<em> five minutes<em>, and they're already in there trying to hook up with..._ how dare they!_ At _Playboy_? Who _does_ that?" He paused again. "And I will not," he added on after stealing another look, "have any of this 'hooking up' shit."

Lance poked his head through the doorway and waved.

Ray laughed. "Ready to get outta here? Alright."

On the way out, Ray pulled his Android out of his jeans pocket to see if he had any new texts or emails. He noticed that he had gotten one from YouTube, notifying him that he had gotten a response from Tessa. He opened it and he felt his heart leap.

_'We're gonna be on tour down in Anaheim, and then we're taking three weeks off for the holidays. Why? You wanna hang out while I'm there? :P'_

* * *

><p><em>Huzzah, she replied!<em>

_R&R and any other R._


	3. Stays The Same

_Chapter 3. Tessa's arrival!_

* * *

><p><em>- <strong>Stays The Same<strong> -_

_Things change all the time,_  
><em>And everything stays the same, same...<em>

The first week of the Equals Three team's winter break went by very slowly. Time creeped its way up to Christmas, which, like all holidays, sped by and Ray was already on his way back to Los Angeles after visiting his family in Oklahoma. The day after he got back home, he received a message from Tessa telling him that she was already in the hotel with Mitchell, Shawna, and the others, which wasn't too far from the apartment complex he lived in. She was quickly invited over, and when she arrived at the door of his apartment, she was greeted very warmly.

"Tessa!"

"Hey, Ray!" she said, equally as cheery. Ray was given a moment to examine her new appearance (especially her multicolored head of hair that was tied back in a ponytail) before she embraced him tightly, resting her chin on his shoulder. "I forgot how much I actually missed you..."

"Yeah, same here..." he breathed as he hugged her back, taking in the tropical scent of her hair that matched its colors.

"Hey, is this Tessa?" Lance asked loudly, completely ruining the moment. He and Rob walked in from the back room, where they had been playing on the Xbox.

"Yes I am!" she replied with a smile as he went over to her.

"I'm Lance," he introduced himself. "I am one of the hundreds of bottom bitches that Ray keeps in his closet."

Tessa laughed. "Somehow, that doesn't surprise me in the slightest." She looked past him and noticed Rob leaning against the marble kitchen counter. "Robert, Robert, Robert!" she said with a cheesy grin, bringing back the old chant that used to bug the hell out of him.

"That's 'Big Rob' to you, little missy," he came back with the usual response, and gave her a big bear hug. "How've you been, Meekakitty? Heard you were goin' on tour."

"Yeah, I am, actually," she said, and the four of them all sat down on Ray's sofa. "A couple of my friends and I decided to go all over the country to meet our fans, and my friend Shawna and I ended up being the comedy duo. Of course, our humor isn't as ground-breaking as Raccoon Eyes' over there."

They all laughed and discussed a lot of things, such as the Dial-Up Tour, Lance's on-stage experiences, and Ray's New York City life compared to his current Los Angeles life.

"I find it... impressive that Ray got from that tiny apartment in NYC while just dangling on the top ten to living in LA in this... rather spacious apartment and being the most subscribed. I'm proud of him, to be completely honest." She looked over at him, and his smile turned into a grin. "Then again," she added on teasingly, "you never would've made it without me!"

Ray laughed. "No, definitely not."

"Well, speaking of going from big city to big city..." Lance began. "We promised Ray that we'd take him to Vegas, cuz he's still a Vegas Virgin..."

Tessa turned her head to face Ray, her ponytail swishing to the other shoulder. "Still?" she said with a smile, clearly surprised.

Ray nodded, grinning. "Yes, it's gonna be my first time."

"So, it just came to me... since, y'know, you haven't seen Ray for a while... would you wanna come to Vegas with us?"

There was a moment's pause, and during that moment's pause, Ray wanted to pounce on Lance's back and repeatedly tell him how much of a genius he is.

"How long are you there for?" Tessa asked, interrupting Ray's thoughts.

"Three days, two nights. It's for New Year's Eve," Lance answered.

Tessa grinned. "Sure! That's if Ray and Rob don't mind."

"Of course they don't!" Lance said, interrupting the two boys from agreeing and jumped to his feet. "We should invite Anna and Dee."

"Already did," said Rob, holding up his phone.

"Who?" she asked.

"Our friends from the Diversity Showcase," Rob told her, and Tessa nodded understandingly.

"So!" said Lance loudly, clapping his hands. "We're going to Vegas, baby!"

_- "Of course, to celebrate New Year's Eve, we all decided to take a little road trip over to Las Vegas." -_

"Hey, what's _UP_?" Ray exclaimed, 99.9% sure he had broken the camera's audio. "I'm so excited, we're going to Las Vegas for New Year's! Hey, say 'what's up', Rob."

He reached the camera forward to Rob, who was driving the car, and he yelled, "Wassuuuup?"

"And wassup you," he said, pointing the camera at Anna, who was sitting in the passenger seat next to Rob.

"SUP."

"Aaaaand guess who's back!" Ray said with a grin as he pointed the camera at Tessa. "Your favorite character who is no longer a redhead!"

"With a brand new track?" Tessa asked in her usual, slightly camera-shy yet cheesy voice.

"What?" Ray laughed.

"Dude, you said 'Guess who's back?' and then she said, 'with a brand new track!' Get with the program!" said Lance.

"Oh. I'm stupid... oh, and, uh, there's old Lancey Pants over there," said Ray, quickly trying to clear up the awkwardness. "Wassup, you?"

"Wassup, you?" Lance mimicked in a high-pitched voice.

"Wassup?"

"Okay, let's just say... people who frequently dye their hair... _smell_," Lance said as if it were a hypothetical question, earning an exaggerated frown from Tessa. "And that you have to sit next to them for four hours straight..."

"I don't smell bad," she said in a baby voice. "I smell of rose petals and sunshine."

"And Anna's ass," Lance added, and the boys laughed. Well... _Rob and Lance_ did. Ray face-palmed.

"For the record, Tessa," said Anna loudly, and Ray gratefully flipped the camera in her direction. "My backside smells amazing."

"Okay, let me restate this whole thing!" Lance said. "Let's just say that... Asians smell... of old tuna."

"Yeah, I can come to terms with that one," Ray agreed with a grin. "You're pretty bad."

"No, I'm not. I smell amazing."

"_RAY_!" Lance randomly yelled out. "First trip to _VEGAS_, buddy!"

"Yes, it's my very first trip," Ray confirmed with a nod, the excited grin returning to his face.

"We could find you a girlfriend!" Lance suggested. "Wait, how long do you want a girlfriend? Cuz we're there for like, what, three days?" He searched his jeans pocket for his wallet and filed through the amount of money he had.

Tessa could no longer hide her laughter as she asked, "Are you offering _money_?"

"Oh, shit!" Anna exclaimed as Lance took out what seemed to be quite a chunk of cash. "Ray, I'll be your girlfriend for that!"

"How much is that?"

"Fo' dolla!" Lance answered as he flattened out the crumpled money and showed it to Ray.

"Fo' dorra?" Ray repeated with a laugh. "Fo'!"

"You'll be his girlfriend in Vegas for _that_?" Rob asked Anna with a snort.

Anna turned back to Ray and told him with a smirk, "I've got a dick, is that okay?"

Ray snickered and shook his head in disapproval. "I don't want a Las Vegas girlfriend."

"The cool thing about the Vegas girls, though, is that they have their own trading cards," Lance told him.

Ray knitted his eyebrows. "The fuck are you talking about?"

"Well, it's like baseball cards, and it's got their name and their stats..."

"How many STD's they have," Tessa said, making Ray grin.

"Cup size..." Lance added on.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I wanted when I said I wanted a girlfriend," said Ray sarcastically. "I want a chick who is on a fuckin'_ trading card_. You know me so well."

Lance sighed, and the car was finally silent. Ray's hand accidentally touched Tessa's, and he promptly withdrew it and rested it on his lap. The other hand busied itself with the camera, recording the tumbleweeds and creamy sand whizzing by as the car kept traveling along the smooth roads of the Nevada desert.

"I'll be your girlfriend," Lance broke the ice, and Anna sniggered.

Ray huffed out a laugh. "You can't be my girlfriend, you're already my bitch!"

"OHHHH!" everyone shouted in unison, followed by a ripple of laughter.

Ray looked beside him at Tessa, and he could just tell that she felt a little left out. He snorted inwardly. It wasn't hard with these loudmouth douches around. He pointed the camera at her and asked, "Hey, Tessa, wanna do the keep on trollin'?"

She looked at him, grinning. "You still do that?"

"Heeeeell yeah I still do that! I'm pretty sure that you're the first person with multiple hair colors to _ever_ do the keep on trollin'."

"I'm honored," she replied, and covered the lens quickly with a smirk.

"Tessa, you have to actually say 'keep on trollin.'" Ray reminded her, gently bringing her hand away from the lens. "You can't do the official 'keep on trollin' without saying 'keep on trollin', because then it's not 'keep on trollin'."

"What is it then, Man Of Much Puffiness?" she asked, grinning.

"It would be signing off in a very boring manner."

"Well, I'll say keep on trollin' and you do the hands."

"Alright." Ray turned the camera towards him, and signed off. "Keep on troll-"

Tessa muffled the lens with her hand again, and her squeaky laugh could be heard in the background.

Ray couldn't help but beam as he turned the camera off. It was back to the good old days, just him and Tessa, not caring about what their friends or family or anyone else thought of them, just being with each other and being friends was all that mattered.

* * *

><p><em>HELL YEAH CHEESY CHAPTER ENDINGS<br>_

_C'mon, guys! I know this is for my cousin, but y'all gotta review SOME DAY. Sooooo R&R!  
><em>


	4. Life Or Something Like It

_Chapter 4. Finally in Vegas!  
><em>

* * *

><p><em>- <strong>Life Or Something Like It<strong> -_

_What you wantin',_  
><em>What you gettin',<em>  
><em>Are 2 different things most of the time.<em>  
><em>What you ask for,<em>  
><em>What you needin',<em>  
><em>Hope you getting yours, 'cause I'm getting mine!<em>  
><em>It's life, or something like it...<em>

- "So, we went to Las Vegas a couple of days before New Year's, and as soon as we dropped off our shit, we went straight downstairs to the casino." -

Once they had arrived at their hotel (The Venetian), Ray, Rob, Lance, Anna, and Tessa dumped their stuff off in their room and briskly headed downstairs to the casino to get themselves some moola. The lighting of the room changed once their excited feet clanked down the escalator, turning from bright, white lights to darker, more rainbow colors.

Ray sat himself beneath a blue-ish, purple light, right in front of a slot machine. Tessa, who hadn't done the slot machines for a couple of years, decided to press a few random, lighted-up buttons to get him started, automatically winning him a few bucks.

"We're such nerds," Ray told the camera as Tessa sat in front of an identical slot machine beside him. "The first slots we go to are the freakin' Star Wars ones. Tessa, any comments on these?"

Lance, who was holding the camera, moved it closer towards her.

"It's, uh... totally ripping me a new Uranus," she told the camera, and grinned when she heard Ray snickering. "I haven't won anything, but, uh... my magical powers got Ray a couple of dollars."

Rob, who sat on Tessa's right on a different type of slot machine, clapped his hands and grinned. "Yeah! Thirty cents, bitch!" he said to the camera before turning his attention back to the machine while chomping away on mint gum.

After finishing on the Star Wars slots, Anna announced to the camera, "Y'know, that game was pretty rough, but I walked away with ten whole cents, mother fuckers."

"We've been walking the Strip for a while," Lance said to the camera tiredly, pointing the camera jealously at Anna, who was getting a piggy-back ride from Rob.

"We've been walking for hours, dude," Ray agreed, and it was pretty apparent that he was tired out. "Tessa was frickin' exhausted, so she went back to the hotel, and she insisted that they kept taking me around because I've never been." The tone in his voice clearly suggested that he wanted to go back to both see Tessa and rest, but Anna could barely hold in her energy and gave them the motivation to keep walking.

"As you can see, Anna is cheating," Lance said, pointing the camera back at Anna and Rob. "Rob can't carry all of us, unfortunately, but anyway... I'm down, like, one hundred and fifty bucks. Ray, are you up or down?"

"I'm up, actually."

"He's up..."

"Anna's getting the piggy-back ride cuz she's used to the Rickshaw back home," Ray teased, and Anna fake-laughed at him.

"Rob, how you holdin' up?" Lance asked.

"Dude, it's like Jedi training... it feels like Yoda on Luke's back," answered Rob, and the look on his face clearly told the camera that he was straining under her weight a little bit.

"We did the Polazzo, we did the Venetian..." Lance listed the casinos. "And now we're heading over to..."

"Are those the women we slept with?" Ray joked.

"Yeah," Lance laughed tiredly. "The big one was Polazzo."

"You sure it was a woman?"

Lance grinned. "I don't know, bro, I'm just tired and I had way too much to drink..."

"Just MARRY each other already!" Anna said loudly. "Lance and Ray for the win!"

Lance turned the camera back to himself and said, "Looks like I'm up!"

Ray laughed and reached into his pocket when he felt his phone vibrating. "Hello?" he answered. "Yes, this is he." His grin quickly faded away. "What? Yeah, I'll be right there." He hung up and said quickly, "Guys! I-I've gotta get back to the hotel room!"

They all stopped walking, and Anna turned her head to face him. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing, they just want me back at the hotel. You guys go on without me."

"But dude, this is for _you_!" Rob argued.

"I know, and I'm sorry. Just take Anna to the strip club like you promised!" Before Rob could stop him, Ray disappeared into the thick crowd of people that was walking around them.

"Something's up," said Rob, his face grim. "He's worried. He always acts like that when he's worried."

"If it was extremely important, he would've asked us to come with him. I'm sure everything's fine," Anna assured him. "C'mon, let's go to the Sapphire. I heard it's the best gentleman's club around! It'll cheer you up foshizzle, Rob!"

Rob slowly nodded, and with a great reluctance, continued down the Vegas Strip with Anna and Lance in tow.

* * *

><p><em>Oh, snap. Something happened at the hotel. Which means it leads to something else. I totally read your mind right there.<em>

_Keep on trollin' and R&R'ing.  
><em>


	5. Loosen Up

_Chapter 5. HELL YES FOR A REVIEW! :D  
><em>

* * *

><p><em>- <strong>Loosen Up<strong> -_

_You got me all tied up and twisted, yeah,_  
><em>You got me all up in a knot,<em>  
><em>And everytime I talk, you don't listen, damn,<em>  
><em>I think it's time you loosen up...<em>

By the time Ray boarded The Venetian's red elevator, his heart was thundering out of his chest. What had happened that he had to be called all the way back to the hotel? Had they been robbed? Had Tessa been kidnapped?

_I knew I should've stayed with her..._ he growled in his head, punching the elevator wall in fury. The pain tingled through knuckles and fingers, and he calmed down a little bit. _I shouldn't have let her convince me to go with them..._

"14th floor," the elevator announced, and a ding sounded out as the large doors slid open. Ray hurried out of the elevator and raced down the hallway, almost crashing into the room service lady in the process. He arrived at the hotel and slid in the key card, and walked in.

"Tessa?" he asked cautiously.

"In here," came a weak response.

Ray's heart rate sped up again as he hurried into the other room, where Tessa lay shivering beneath the numerous blankets, sheets, and quilts that lay on top of her.

"What happened?" he asked, trying as hard as possible to not make it sound like a demand.

"I-I was crashed into," she stuttered, "a-and I fell in the p-pool. And it was f-freezing cold." She shivered again, this time much more violently.

Ray sat beside her, grasping one of her cold, pale hands that had attempted to pull the blankets over her a bit more.

"You couldn't just swim to the surface and get the hell out?"

Tessa turned her head to the side and coughed before replying, "You know that I've had a lot of b-bad experiences with w-water."

Ray raised his eyebrows. "You still can't swim?"

Tessa huffed a laugh and shrugged, which was barely noticeable beneath the thick layers. "I can bounce...?"

Ray, however, wasn't laughing. "Tessa, what were you doing by the pool if you can't swim, anyway? It's common sense!"

Tessa's smile faded when his voice raised. "When we passed by the p-pool earlier to get to the room, I l-lost a necklace that my grandma gave to me," she answered quietly. Ray could tell that she was upset about it.

"Look, when Rob, Lance, and Anna come back, I'll go and look for it," he assured her. "And then tomorrow night, I'm gonna teach you how to swim."

"Tomorrow is N-New Year's Eve," she reminded him.

Ray sighed. "Then I guess it'll be late night swimming tonight!"

"You c-can't teach me when we get back?" she asked.

Ray shook his head. "Not after this incident. By the time we cross the Nevada-California border, you will know how to swim." He crashed on the bed beside her, which was luckily queen-sized. He grabbed the remote and asked with a grin, "Family Guy? Or South Park?"

Tessa smiled. "South Park."

* * *

><p>Lance stumbled into the hotel room about two hours later, completely worn out. Anna, who was lucky enough to get another piggy-back ride from Rob, was half-asleep on his back.<p>

"Are Ray and Tessa here?" Rob asked quietly.

Lance lifted his Lancey Pants cap out of his eyes a little more and crept down the miniature hallway to the other side of the hotel room, where Comedy Central was flashing enough on the walls to give someone an epileptic seizure. Ray and Tessa were fast asleep beside each other, with Tessa nestled into his chest for warmth.

"Hell yeah they're in here," Lance replied with a soft laugh.

Rob gently lowered Anna onto the bed before hurrying in the other room. He snickered. "Jesus Christ..."

Lance walked over to Ray and shook his shoulder. "Hey, dude," he whispered. "We're back."

Ray shifted in his sleep and rolled onto his back. He opened his eyes and stared right into Lance's. "Date rape..." he yawned as he reached his arms towards the ceiling to give them a good stretch. He looked beside him at Tessa and said, "Oh, shit, I've gotta take her swimming."

Rob knitted his eyebrows together. "What? Dude, it's half past eleven. And we didn't wanna be too late because we knew something was up."

Ray slid on his Wayfarers and walked over to his suitcase to try and dig out anything that he could swim in. "Tessa almost drowned, and then almost frickin' died of hypothermia," he told them. "A big guy ran into her. She flew sideways and fell into the freezing cold pool. Plus, she can't swim."

Lance sucked air through his teeth and looked back at Tessa, who was still sound asleep. "God, that sucks ass..."

"Yeah, so I told her by the time we cross the state border again, she'll know how to swim." Ray looked up at Lance and asked, "Hey, dude, have you got any swimming trunks or any shit like that?"

Lance thought for a moment before replying, "Maybe. I don't know, dude, I'll go check." He then proceeded to check his own suitcase.

Rob snorted. "Wouldn't she just suffer from the cold, anyway? It's pitch black out there, dude."

"Yeah, but the pool's lighted up and the lobby asked the pool guys to warm up the pool after the incident," said Ray. "Don't you worry about it. Hey, is Anna asleep?"

"It's not gonna be long before she's snoozin'. Why?"

"Her and Tessa are practically the same size; Tessa's just taller. Maybe she has a bikini that Tessa can borrow."

Rob shook his head disapprovingly before going down the hallway to ask. After a few minutes, Anna slowly got out of bed and dragged her feet towards the suitcase.

"How was the strip club?" Ray asked her with a grin.

"It was cool, I guess..." she responded tiredly, stifling a yawn, "but I wouldn't go there again unless I needed money." She looked up at him and smirked, and Ray shook his head, chuckling.

"She got a lap dance," Lance added with a laugh.

Anna nodded, finally flinging her black bikini on the bed behind her and snapping her suitcase shut. "It was funny until I thought about the stripper's daddy, and... and how he would feel if he saw his daughter on a straight woman..."

"Strippers don't have fathers," Lance reminded her. "They're a special breed."

Ray chuckled, and then watched as Lance gently shook Tessa's shoulder.

"Hey, Tessa. Raccoon Eyes is giving you swimming lessons."

After a few moments, she mumbled, "Tell him he's that one Egg McMuffin runt that no one eats and then... he'll mold... because nobody likes him..."

"Tessa, I'm right here," Ray laughed. "You either learn how to swim tonight or you completely miss out on the fireworks and the fun tomorrow."

Tessa groaned and lifted all of the blankets and quilts off of her, scuffling into Anna's room and, after asking, took the bikini and went to go change in the bathroom.

* * *

><p>Ray waited by the edge of the pool for about ten minutes, just waiting for Tessa. He was wearing Lance's black swimming trunks, which went passed his knees because they were so long on him, and a black t-shirt with writing that was such a dark shade of gray that you could barely read it against the low, blue lighting of the pool's agitated surface.<p>

Just as he started getting doubts about whether or not she would come out, Tessa appeared with a bright blue towel wrapped around her and her long, mostly red hair in a single braid.

"It's freaking cold," she said loudly, and Ray laughed.

"Suck it up and deal, ginger, you almost got hypothermia earlier!"

"I'm not ginger anymore, smart one," she replied, reluctantly throwing the towel on a chair nearby and sitting on one of the steps of the pool.

"Alright, let's get this shit done," Ray announced, taking off his Wayfarers and gently tossing them on a different chair. "First of all, you have to get used to the water." He slid into the water and simply walked over to the other side, where Tessa was awkwardly trying to enter without slipping and hitting her head.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked with a laugh.

"Trying to get in the pool, Spongebob," she answered with a Southern accent. She huffed out a breath and hopped over to the center of the pool.

"Relax, Tessa," he told her gently when she immediately latched onto his arm. "See, look, the Puff hasn't touched the water yet." He pointed to his hair, and she couldn't help but smirk.

"So, uh..." she said after a few moments. "What now?"

"Floating," Ray replied. "On your back, madam."

Tessa swallowed and lifted her feet slowly. She freaked and lashed out, wrapping her arms around Ray's neck.

"Tessa, relax," he reminded her, "or else you'll drown."

"Oh, yeah, that makes me relax!" Tessa hissed.

"Sorry," Ray apologized, trying to hide a smile. "Here, just get on your back, and I'll help you out, alright? Just remember to relax."

Tessa obliged, holding onto his wrist until she felt comfortable. Ray slowly backed away from her and grinned.

"See, look," he said quietly. "You're floating. Without my help."

Tessa looked over at him. "What? I thought you were-!"

The water caught sense of her fear and swallowed her beneath its thin surface. She sank, and her feet scrabbled to touch the the bottom of the pool. Once they had, she slowly turned to look in Ray's direction. He was swimming over to her, the bouncing light of the pool making his skin glow a shade of blue. Tessa attempted to move towards him, but lost her footing and lashed out, trying to grab onto something that wasn't there.

Ray quickly seized Tessa's wrists before she could hit the bottom and pulled her back up to her feet.

_Close your eyes,_ he mouthed. Tessa knitted her eyebrows together, and after a moment of calming herself down, closed her eyes. It was a matter of seconds before she felt completely comfortable and allowed the water to be a friend rather than an enemy.

When the need for air pained her throat and lungs, she opened her eyes. Ray was still there, grinning proudly at her, and grabbed her hand to pull her to the surface.

Tessa coughed and sputtered, wiping her long bangs out of her eyes and looking over at Ray.

"You tackled your fear of water in exactly 20 minutes," he announced after checking his Android, which was lying on the chair next to his glasses. "I'm pretty sure that's a world record."

"I guess it takes a raccoon-eyed midget to help out," she said with a shrug. "I guess we'll get to the actual swimming around and kicking thing some other time. And, uh, speaking of time..."

"Five past midnight. We should go back upstairs, I guess."

"Yeah, back to Rob puking and Lance ranting."

"What was he ranting about?" Ray asked, helping her out of the pool and sliding on his Wayfarers.

"How every time he comes to Vegas, he's always doing stand-up and how he wishes he was doing it now."

Ray snorted, rubbing his hair dry with a towel. "Sounds like a pussy-ass excuse to me."

Tessa snickered. "Your hair... it's all over the place."

"It's always all over the place."

"Yes, but usually, it's neatly all over the place," she corrected herself. She threw the towel over her shoulders like a blanket and walked over to him, reaching one arm out to run her fingers through his hair. "There... one of the strands is sticking out, if you care."

"I refer to it as 'the boner strand'," he told her, and she laughed. "It's the one in the front, right? Yeah, every day it's just like, 'RAY. I'm gonna be a boner again.' and I'm just like, 'What the fuck, hair, I've already got one just by looking at myself in the mirror!'"

Tessa grinned and shook her head. "Yes, well... thank you for that information."

Ray chuckled. "Anytime!"


	6. Figure 8

_Chapter 7. Two more chappies after this, I do believe._

* * *

><p><em>-<strong> Figure 8<strong> -_

_Lately I've been trying my best,_  
><em>But maybe it ain't good enough.<em>  
><em>Runnin' in circles, I guess.<em>  
><em>Round and round, it never stops.<em>  
><em>It never stops, it never stops,<em>  
><em>It never stops, just like a figure 8...<em>

- It was finally New Year's Eve, and we all decided to head out to the casinos before going outside to see the countdown and fireworks. -

"Hey, what's up, guys?" Ray greeted the camera. "I don't even know if we're allowed to vlog in this casino, but we're in the... Monte Carlo. Is that right?" he turned the camera to Lance.

"YES," came the hyper response.

"Yeah, it's a good time. Hey, Lance, how you feelin' about Vegas so far?"

"Man, I love it," Lance answered. "There's so many people - like, half a million people - and they're all out on the street because they're gonna set off fireworks in, like, forty-five minutes. But whenever there's, like, a shit ton of people... I don't know, it's just fucking exciting." He then took a sip of his iced drink before continuing. "We came down here to break away and drink some alcohol, but, yeah! We're gonna throw it down proper tonight!"

"Hey, Lucy Lu and Drew Barrymore!" Ray called to Anna and Tessa, who were looking around and pointing at slot machines they wanted to try out. "How do you feel about Vegas?"

"I love Vegas," Anna replied, "'cuz you can walk around with a drink in your hand."

"It's fun," said Tessa in a monotone voice, and Ray and Anna laughed.

"Hey, Ray!" a voice called out. Ray turned to see none other than Richard Andrew - better known as Outasight - walking towards them in his trademark Ray-Bans.

"Hey, OU!" Ray greeted. He handed to camera to Anna and shook Outasight's hand. "How's it going?"

"Good, man! Came here 'cuz a fan of mine asked if I could do a performance, and it's just been really fun." He turned his head to see that no one else was around, and said, "Hey, dude, rumor had it that you were here and I'm glad I found you. Wanna show you something." Ray knitted his eyebrows as Outasight walked briskly away, and jogged to keep up with him.

Anna watched them leave before turning to Tessa and asking, "Wanna go ask Rob how Vegas is going?"

"Sure," Tessa replied. "May I?"

"Of course."

Tessa took the camera and skipped over to Rob. "Robert, Robert, Robert!"

"Don't make me remind you for the millionth time," Rob said with a smirk. "What's up, Meekakitty?"

"Vegas. Thoughts. Now."

"Uh... I just fuckin' won fifty bucks," he told her, "...but then I just lost it."

"On the slot machine?" Anna laughed.

"Yeah."

"So... you won fifty dollars and lost it seconds later..." Tessa clarified. "Nice, Robert."

"Where's your drink at?" Lance asked as he walked over.

"Uh, I already drank it." Rob held up his empty cup. "I'm waiting for them to come around so I can get another free drink!"

"Alright, let's go outside to get a good spot for the fireworks!" said Anna excitedly. "I heard that someone was performing before the countdown. You can gain your fifty bucks back after, Rob."

* * *

><p>"Is it bad?" Ray asked as he finally caught up with him.<p>

"Well, that's up to you to decide." Outasight led him to a snack bar and pointed at one of the magazines that was displayed on a black rack. Ray picked up the magazine and examined the cover page. He didn't see anything wrong with it... until he looked at the corner of the page.

"_What?_" Ray yelled out, and a couple of people nearby glanced at him in confusion before continuing on their way. "'_YouTube God Ray William Johnson Shows His New Goddess How To Swim'?_" He looked back up at Outasight, who huffed out a breath.

"I know, man..." he sighed as he watched Ray speedily flip through the pages of the magazine to the article that he and Tessa were featured in. "I didn't think you guys were dating 'cause I watched the vlogs-"

"This is bullshit!" Ray exclaimed, throwing the magazine in a nearby trash can and earning a glare from the man behind the snack bar counter. "Who the fuck do they think they are?"

"They're the paparazzi, they're fucking insane."

"Don't just give me that shit! What am I supposed to do? What if Tessa sees this? What if the _fans_ see this? They're gonna go nuts! And Tessa's never gonna talk to me again..." He crashed on a bench close by, exasperated.

Outasight took all of the magazines that featured Ray and Tessa on the front and dumped them all in the trash.

"Hey! You have to pay for those-" the man said with scorn, but Outasight interrupted him.

"Here, take twenty bucks," he said, tossing the bill on the counter. "I'll be gaining it back from your hotel, anyway." Outasight sat beside Ray, whose face was buried in his hands. "I'm really sorry, Ray. I wish I hadn't have told you... I could tell you were having a great night with your friends, and I fuckin' ruined it."

"No, dude, I'm glad you told me..." Ray mumbled, finally lifting his head. "It saved me from having an argument with Tessa later on in life..."

There was a moment of silence before Outasight's phone rang out.

"OU. Yeah, I'll be right there. Thanks." He hung up. "I have to go, man. I'm really sorry. I'll make it up to you soon, I promise."

"No, OU... it's not your fault. You go ahead... I'll call you soon or something."

"Alright, man. Again, I'm really sorry." Outasight reluctantly ran off, leaving Ray by himself on the bench.

* * *

><p>Half an hour later, Ray was weaving his way through the large crowd of people to where Lance, Tessa, Anna, and Rob were all dancing along to the music.<p>

"Hey, dude!" Lance yelled. "Where were you? His songs are fuckin' amazing!"

Ray turned and finally realized who the singer on stage was. "Is that Outasight?" he asked loudly.

"Yeah! Dude, I've only listened to, like, three of his songs... but I need to download the rest, 'cuz these are the shit!"

"Same as when we were back in NYC, huh?" said Tessa with a grin, and Ray gave her a small smile back. She stopped doing the "Elaine from Seinfeld" dance with Anna and just _knew_ that something was up.

The song ended, and Outasight yelled into the microphone, "How many of y'all know who my buddy Ray William Johnson is?" A large amount of screaming and arm flailing suddenly rose from the crowd. "Alright! Well, some stuff's been said about him the last day or two, so I decided that this song would be like the grand finale..."

A quick beat sounded out, and the entire crowd cheered. Ray huffed out a fake laugh and muttered, "Tonight is the night..."

* * *

><p><em>I greatly dislike... magazines and tabloids and anything that just spreads rumors... something very similar happened to my uncle, and it was just terrible...<em>

_So yes. I hope you realized that when Ray said "tonight is the night" at the ending, it's a double meaning... if not, you'll find out in the next chapter, which is part one of two of the grand finale._


	7. Tonight is the Night

_Part 1 of 2 in the finale chappies. Very short. And you're welcome for using 'Tonight Is The Night.'_

* * *

><p><em>- <strong>Tonight Is The Night<strong> -_

_Tonight is the night, is the night, yeah, we're losing control..._  
><em>Tonight is the night, is the night we set it off...<em>

"'_Everybody go!'_" Outasight sang into the microphone, and the entire crowd hooted and sang along.

Tessa walked over to the depressed Ray and yanked him away from Lance, Rob, and Anna. "Something's wrong," she said flatly. "Tell me."

Ray looked back at their friends, who had stopped dancing and were now staring at them. He turned back to Tessa and asked, "Now?"

"By the time we cross the Nevada-California border," she quoted, and when he didn't react, she teased, "Where's that smile? Where's that smile? Where's that smile?"

Ray cracked a grin. "God damn it, Meekakitty..." he muttered, looking down at his feet and laughing softly.

Tessa grinned triumphantly. "C'mon, Ray. It's _New Year's Eve_. Cheer up and have some fun, okay?"

Ray nodded, and they both re-joined the group.

"_'Tonight is the night, is the night, yeah, we're losing controooooool!'_" Lance yelled, and he laughed. "Damn, I love this song!"

The song soon ended, and hoots and cheers erupted from the crowd again.

"Alright, guys, fifteen seconds left in 2011!" Outasight announced. "...12, 11, 10..."

"9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!" Ray, Tessa, Lance, Rob and Anna chanted in unison, and Lance lifted the camera high into the air as the entire crowd screamed, "HAPPY NEW YEEEEEAAAR!"

Fireworks shot into the air from the top of the Hard Rock Cafe, the Monte Carlo, and other nearby casinos and hotels, their bright colors reflecting on the faces of the thousands of people that were standing on the streets below them.

"Happy New Year!" Lance proclaimed to the camera. "It just counted down and, holy shit-"

"Happy New Year!" Rob loudly interrupted, and he and Ray lifted their cups of beer towards the camera as the fireworks continued to burst colorfully above them.

"Happy 2012!" said Ray to the camera after the crowd calmed down a little. "I hope the fuckin' world doesn't end like the Mayans, uh... apparently said it would. Hey, Lance!" He looked up at Lance, turning the camera towards him. "Is the world gonna end?"

"It's fuckin' over, bro!" Lance answered with a laugh.

"I'm gonna be so fuckin' _sick_... and _hung over_... you're gonna _wish_ it would fuckin' end," said Rob, and they all laughed.

Tessa suddenly pulled Ray away from the group to a little clearing at the edge of the crowd, and asked, "So, what's on your mind?"

Ray sighed. "The tabloids... the fuckin' tabloids..." He looked up at her, and she nodded, urging him to go on. "They featured us and wrote an entire article on us..."

Tessa smiled a little. "Ray, that happens all the time. You should know that!"

"No, I mean..." He sighed again, taking out his phone and showing her a picture of the cover.

Tessa squinted at the screen and mouthed the title before looking up at Ray in slight horror. "Is... is this what Outasight was showing you?"

Ray nodded. "Yeah..." There was a pause. "You shouldn't have come here, Tessa," he said finally. "Lance shouldn't have invited you. I thought it was a great fucking idea..." He glanced down at his feet before looking back up at her, and seeing her mouth form into a slight frown gave him the sudden urge to run to the top of the Hard Rock Cafe and leap off the edge. Or jump in front of the fireworks. "And I've fucked everything up..."

Ray was about to return to their friends again when Tessa yanked him back.

"Ray, you haven't messed anything up," she assured him. "Sure, the tabloids are assholes, and I lost the necklace my grandma gave me..." She reached into her "livelavalive" hoodie and pulled out a silver locket that was hanging around her neck. "...But I wouldn't have found it, either. You helped me get over my fear of water in twenty minutes. You let me come with you guys to Vegas to celebrate New Year's Day. If it weren't for you, I'd probably be with Shawna and Mitchell and the rest of them in that very poor hotel having a very low-key party. I tried my very first Star Wars slot machine and I won twenty bucks. I watched South Park on a very large TV. And I finally met Lance and Anna, and I've already been set up to meet your friend Dee and be featured in a few more vlogs. You've already made my year, Ray William Johnson." Tessa finally closed the gap between them, kissing him very affectionately on the lips before pulling away and saying breathlessly, "Thank you."

Ray slipped his hands around her hips, bringing her black cotton hoodie back against his brown leather jacket. "My pleasure..."

* * *

><p><em>OH SNAP. Part 2 coming very soon! PS. Reviews are cool. And oh Lord, my cousin made a fanfiction account.<br>_


	8. Setting Sun

_So, here it is, y'all! Last chapter!_

* * *

><p><em>- <strong>Setting Sun<strong> -_

"Dude!" Lance yelled at the camera with a gigantic grin on his face. "So, Ray and Tessa just fuckin' took off, and..." He paused to glance back over at the hilarious sight he was seeing.

"Dude, we see 'em, we see 'em!" Rob laughed, and an 'Oh my God...' came from Anna.

"...I wanna show you guys something!" Lance finally finished off, and he turned the camera around to see Ray and Tessa a little distance away, passionately kissing each other on the lips. Tessa's hands moved nonchalantly down from Ray's soft hair to wrap themselves around his neck, and Ray broke away for a short moment to slowly kiss her again, the arms of his Wayfarers gleaming in the light as he did so.

"Dude!" Lance and Rob said in unison, and Rob finished off, "Dude, what is he, _gay_?" They all snickered.

Lance turned around to let him be in the shot with the amazing scene that was behind them. "Can y'all see that right now?"

"Dude, he's never gonna let you keep that in," Rob told him, trying his best to calm down.

"No, bro, I'm keeping that in the fuckin' vlog." Lance turned back to the camera and said, "Ain't that right, DFlesh?"

"Aww..." Anna cooed as Lance lifted the camera higher for the audience to get a better look. "Hey, Rob, Lance! Can you do a little New Year's kiss for us?"

Rob cracked up. "Aw, shit... this is so gay."

"That's the point!" laughed Anna. She held the camera as Lance and Rob pretended to make out, tongues and all.

"Here, Anna, we won't let you feel left out," said Lance, and he and Rob snickered before attacking her cheeks with kisses.

"Ugh! Get off!" Anna shouted with a grin, and when she finally broke away from them, she gave the audience once last shot of Ray and Tessa before signing off.

Ray reluctantly pulled away from Tessa and smiled. "Happy New Year," he said finally, kissing her one more time on the lips.

Tessa could barely hold his gaze and looked down, a reluctant blush creeping up on her cheeks. "Same to you," she muttered, and looked back up at him with a smirk, "...sir."

"'Sir?'" Ray repeated with false outrage, and Tessa chuckled. "This is your boyfriend standing in front of you!"

"So, a New Year's kiss makes us official?" Tessa asked, making Ray pause to actually think for a moment.

"Uh..."

"I'm kidding! Geezus!" she laughed.

"I'll give you 'Geezus'..." Ray said, a hint of a growl in his voice. They were about to kiss again when a cat call sounded out, and Tessa buried her head in Ray's shoulder in embarrassment.

"Dude, you're so gay!" Rob accused with a grin. "Who the hell makes out on New Year's Day anymore?"

"So, are you guys heading up to the hotel room, or...?" Lance said, and Anna punched him in the shoulder to shut him up.

"Probably," Ray joked, "to get away from you fuckin' loudmouths!" He lifted Tessa into his arms, and she let out a squeak as he started running off towards the direction of The Venetian.

"Anna! Turn the camera back on, we're recording this, too!" Lance yelled before he and Rob darted after them.

Anna laughed, trying to successfully turn on the camera without dropping it as she followed the boys back towards the hotel room.

_~I hope this day is never done..._  
><em>No need to see the setting, setting sun...<em>  
><em>Setting sun...<em>

* * *

><p><em>Soooo there you go. That's it. Last chapter. DONE FOREVER. Might do a one-shot sequel, but that's it.<em>

_And all I can say is thanks for reading! And I highly recommend that you listen to Outasight's mixtape, Get It Together. It's amazing. If you like amazingness._

_Thanks again for reading and have a fantastic 2012. :)  
><em>


End file.
